Page 70 - Gaza

Israel, Hamas agree on 1st truce, 50 hostages to be freed in swap

Hamas and allied groups captured around 240 hostages when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli towns on October 7

Many leaders spoke on Israel-Hamas war at virtual G20 meeting: Jaishankar

Countries currently remain focused not only on containing any spillover of the conflict but also on ensuring that it doesn't escalate further

Gaza Strip's loss of life equally shocking as that of Ukraine: Putin at G20

Acknowledging that what is happening in Ukraine is undoubtedly a "tragedy", Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said conflicts elsewhere, including in the Gaza Strip, are also "shocking" and urged the G20 nations to make efforts to end conflicts. Putin made these remarks while virtually addressing the G20 meeting hosted by India. Putin had skipped the in-person G20 summit in New Delhi in September, saying he had to focus on the "special military operation" in Ukraine. Russia's state-run Tass news agency reported that Putin's remarks came in the wake of the statements by some leaders who said they were shaken by the ongoing aggression in Ukraine. I understand that this war can't help but be shocking. But the bloody coup in Ukraine in 2014, which was followed by the Kiev regime's war against its own people in Donbass was that not shocking? And the extermination of civilians in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip now isn't that shocking? Putin said. Russia invaded Ukraine in ...

WHO calls for urgent ceasefire after attack on Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza

The World Health Organization office in the occupied Palestinian territory took to social media 'X', and stressed the need for humanitarian access and the protection of health care

What will happen in Gaza Strip after Israel stops its war on Hamas?

US President Joe Biden wants to bring the more moderate Palestinian Authority from the West Bank, led by Mahmoud Abbas, back into Gaza

Israel approves truce with Hamas; Palestinian prisoners also to be freed

Israel's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a temporary cease-fire with the Hamas militant group that is expected to bring the first halt in fighting in a devastating six-week war and win freedom for dozens of hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for the release of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. The deal calls for a four-day cease-fire, during which Israel will halt its military offensive in Gaza while Hamas frees at least 50 of the roughly 240 hostages it and other militants are holding, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. The first hostages to be released are women and children. The government of Israel is committed to bringing all of the hostages home. Tonight, the government approved the outline for the first stage of achieving this goal, the office said in a statement. A statement released by Qatar, which mediates with Hamas, Wednesday morning said the deal includes the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli

Israel approves deal to free around 50 hostages and pause war with Hamas

In a second stage of the deal, Hamas would release more women and children in return for Israel prolonging the pause by several days, according to the government statement

Secret negotiations between Qatar, US, Israel led to Gaza hostages deal

The secretive effort included tense personal diplomatic engagement by US President Biden, who held number of urgent conversations with emir of Qatar and Israeli PM

X's ad revenue to be donated to Israeli hospitals, Red Cross in Gaza: Musk

It was in July this year that Musk renamed Twitter as X Corp. after his 2022 acquisition of the service

Israel takes steps to replace grain production lost due to war in Gaza

The ministry will grant up to 150 Shekels per dunam (0.22 acres) to the grower. About 60 thousand dunams have already begun to be sown in the heart of the Negev.

Israel troops battle militants across Gaza, which has been without power

Israeli troops battled Palestinian militants in a dense, urban refugee camp on Tuesday as the army expanded operations across northern Gaza, where residents have been without electricity, water or access to humanitarian aid for weeks. The front line of the war, now in its seventh week, has shifted to the Jabaliya camp, a dense warren of concrete buildings near Gaza City that houses refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and their descendants. Israel has been bombarding the area for weeks, and the military said Hamas fighters have regrouped there and in other eastern districts after being pushed out of much of Gaza City. The military said forces are preparing the battlefield in the area of Jabaliya. It said they struck three tunnel shafts where fighters were hiding and destroyed rocket launchers, adding that dozens of militants have been killed in recent days. There was no immediate comment from Hamas, and it was not possible to independently confirm details of the

Ukrainians who fled nation for Israel find themselves living with war again

Tatyana Prima thought she'd left the bombs behind when she fled Ukraine more than a year and a half ago, after Russia decimated her city, Mariupol. The 38-year-old escaped with her injured husband and young daughter, bringing the family to safety in southern Israel. The calm she was slowly regaining shattered again on October 7, when Hamas militants invaded. All these sounds of war that we hear now, they sometimes work as a trigger that brings back memories of what we've gone through in Mariupol, she said. "It's hard feeling like that you're the one responsible for your child, the one who wants what's best for them, and in some way like you've failed them. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, more than 45,000 Ukrainians have sought refuge in Israel, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics and aid groups. Like Prima, most of them were slowly picking up the pieces of their lives and finding ways to cope when the war in Israel erupted. Now they are reliving their traum

Why Israel might win the battle in Gaza but end up losing the war

Biden gave Israel's leaders some good and personally chastening advice: Don't let rage drive you to mistakes the US made after a terror attack on America killed almost 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001

Close to truce agreement with Israel: Hamas chief even as assault continues

Hamas officials are "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide

Cyprus ready to ship aid to Gaza once a go-ahead is given, says president

Cyprus is ready to immediately begin shipping large quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza in vessels that can navigate shallow water once conditions on the ground allow for it, the president of the east Mediterranean island nation said Monday. President Nikos Christodoulides said his country's proposal for a maritime corridor from the Cyprus' port of Larnaca to Gaza is the only one currently being discussed on an international level as a feasible way to significantly supplement the trickle of aid getting into the enclave through Egypt's Rafah border checkpoint. Planning for the corridor of about 230 miles (370 kilometers) is essentially completed, and aid can begin to flow when a pause in fighting is declared, Christodoulides said. The Cypriot leader, who has been in regular contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the proposal, said that getting a green light to start the shipments is a complicated matter requiring intricate negotiations in light of the ongoing

Heavy fighting breaks out near another Gaza hospital after babies evacuated

Heavy fighting erupted Monday around a hospital in northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks, as Israeli forces focus on clearing out medical facilities that they say Hamas militants use for cover. The advance on the Indonesian Hospital came a day after the World Health Organisation evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the territory's largest, where they were among more than 250 critically ill or wounded patients stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound. The plight of Gaza's hospitals is at the focus of a battle of narratives over the war's brutal toll on Palestinian civilians, thousands of whom have been killed or buried in rubble since the six-week-old war was sparked by Hamas' Oct 7 rampage into southern Israel. Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields, while critics say Israel's siege and relentless aerial bombardment amount to collective punishment of the territory's 2.3

Israel-Gaza war: IDF says it exposed Hamas tunnel under Al-Shifa Hospital

Israeli Army first entered the Al-Shifa Hospital complex a few days ago, alleging that the militant group Hamas used it as a command centre

With world's eyes on Gaza, attacks are on the rise in West Bank now

When Israeli warplanes swooped over the Gaza Strip following Hamas militants' deadly attack on southern Israel, Palestinians say a different kind of war took hold in the occupied West Bank. Overnight, the territory was closed off. Towns were raided, curfews imposed, teenagers arrested, detainees beaten, and villages stormed by Jewish vigilantes. With the world's attention on Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, the violence of war has also erupted in the West Bank. Israeli settler attacks have surged at an unprecedented rate, according to the United Nations. The escalation has spread fear, deepened despair, and robbed Palestinians of their livelihoods, their homes and, in some cases, their lives. Our lives are hell, said Sabri Boum, a 52-year-old farmer who fortified his windows with metal grills last week to protect his children from settlers he said threw stun grenades in Qaryout, a northern village. It's like I'm in a prison. In six weeks, settlers have killed nine Palestini

Deeply shocked: Antonio Guterres on UN-run schools attacked in Gaza

He added by saying that several women and children who were seeking shelter in the UNRWA schools there have been reportedly killed or suffered serious injuries

Houthi rebels hijack Israeli-linked ship in Red Sea, take 25 crew hostage

Yemen's Houthi rebels seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage and raising fears that regional tensions heightened over the Israel-Hamas war were playing out on a new maritime front. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel and took the crew as hostages. The group warned that it would continue to target ships in international waters that were linked to or owned by Israelis until the end of Israel's campaign against Gaza's Hamas rulers. All ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets, the Houthis said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had blamed the Houthis for the attack on the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. It said the 25 crew members had a range of nationalities, including Bulgarian, Filipino, Mexican and Ukrainian,